


goodnight moon will find the mouse (and I love you)

by cinderlily



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:12:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7549258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duke usually made it till Max got home before falling asleep, but as the pregnancy had progressed that was slowly becoming less and less likely. He was trying not to be that embarrassed by it. He was building a fucking human being, an awesome human being. But the fact that he couldn’t make it to 10:15 most nights could knock a 24-year old’s pride a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	goodnight moon will find the mouse (and I love you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [merryofsoul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryofsoul/gifts).



Duke usually made it till Max got home before falling asleep, but as the pregnancy had progressed that was slowly becoming less and less likely. He was trying not to be that embarrassed by it. He was building a fucking human being, an awesome human being. But the fact that he couldn’t make it to 10:15 most nights could knock a 24-year old’s pride a bit. 

He swore he was going to stay up on loss nights, if only because Max always seemed to take it the worst on those nights, but apparently he couldn’t keep that promise because he woke up to the soft sound of Max’s voice. 

His was on his side on the couch, a pillow between his knees (cause that was one of the few ways to keep his body even slightly comfortable) and Max was talking to his stomach. This last part wasn’t new, exactly, had started the first time Max felt the baby kick at his hand a few weeks before. 

Except… Max wasn’t speaking English. Duke had to strain his ears and try and keep as still as possible. 

Max was speaking French. Poorly. Like really really poorly, to the point that he questioned the Canadian schooling but it didn’t matter. He felt his face break into two. 

“ _I could have made the score, baby. I just missed your Papa. He is my guy. My stick works better when he played. You finish being made and we’ll get him back on his foot and we’ll score. Okay?_ ” 

Max leaned in and put soft kisses on the belly. The baby, responding either to the voice or the small pressure rolled over and kicked directly at Max. 

“Holy shit!” Max called out, and Duke finally broke into laughter. 

“He moved your freaking stomach, did you see that?” 

Duke reached out and smacked at the back of Max’s head playfully. “No, dumbass. I felt it. _She_ was probably annoyed by you butchering her native tongue.” 

He went to sit up and found that he was struggling, not exactly his finest moment. Max offered his hand without chirping, a lesson he’d learned a few weeks before. 

“You know, we could stop this freaking argument anytime you wanted,” Max said. “And I wasn’t that bad with the French, was I?” 

Duke tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling for a second, trying to shake the sense of vertigo. Stupid excess amount of blood. He closed his eyes and exhaled. “You know I speak Quebecois, right? But yeah. You were bad. And we have six weeks till we find out. You really want to find out NOW?” 

When Duke finally tilted his head forward he looked at Max, who was in the process of schooling his face to the unworried one. Duke couldn’t blame him, exactly, for being worried for him. He’d spent his childhood with medicine being scary and wrong. But Duke was having an entirely normal pregnancy, a point the doctor had so kindly brought up at every appointment Max could make it to. 

“You woke her up,” Duke said, diverting the attention away from anything that could be bad. He grabbed Max’s hand and placed it on top of where the kicks were the strongest. They waited in silence for a while and it rolled and kicked as hard as it could, moving Max’s hand just slightly outwards. 

“Hah,” Max said and pushed Duke’s belly in slightly. The baby responded with a swift kick followed by a rolling motion that hit Duke in the lung. He let out an ‘ooof’ but Max was too pleased to notice. “You’ve got the Domi spirit, dude. Maybe you’ll get the Duclair height…” 

Duke chuckled. “Fuck no, she’ll be kicked out of all her games.” 

“We’ll teach her how to be stealth.” 

“You said ‘her’!” Duke pumped his fist. “You know I’m right.” 

Max shrugged and leaned over to kiss the top of Duke’s annoyingly large belly. He swore he’d never seen one as big, even when Mikey had twins. Max said it was because he was lanky but that didn’t comfort him at all. 

“Doesn’t matter to me.” 

“Six months I hear you INSIST it’s a boy and now it doesn’t matter?” Duke scoffed. “You have been messing with me?” 

Max kissed him lightly on the cheek and gave him a shit-eating grin. “I like seeing you riled up.” 

“You know, I will kill you in your sleep,” Duke said calmly. 

“No, you won’t,” Max kissed his lips. “You love my annoying ass.” 

The worst part was the fucker was right. He kissed him back. 

“Did you watch the game?” Max asked with his chin on Duke’s shoulder, hand rubbing idly at the belly. 

Duke flinched. “Yeah I did. How’s your shoulder? Burns hit you pretty freaking hard.” 

“Iced it, some cream. It’s fine,” he said. “He asked if we knew if it was a girl or a boy. Said he’d send us the ‘right’ jersey.”   
Duke thought about it for a second. “We’ll need burp cloths.” 

He could feel the smile and the laugh a hot puff of air across his neck. “You are my fucking favorite, Anthony Duclair.” 

“I know. How could I not be?” he smiled back. “Even though you need grammar lessons, I appreciate that I was missed.” 

“Come on, you know that I play better with you on the ice. Not that I’m complaining, I like this too. Just. When you come back. We’re going to light the arena up.” 

Duke let out a yawn. “Next season.” 

“Next season. This year I’ll just work harder. Put our kid in a cup,” Max said softly, pressing a kiss to the edge of his elbow. “For now, sleep, for the two of you.” 

He would fight it but fuck, he was drained. “Aye aye Captain.” 

“I just have an A,” Max pointed out. “Oliver has the Captain thing down. I’m cool with being an alternate.” 

As Max led him down the hall to their room, past the nursery and with Orion at their feet, Duke felt the warm feeling of home filling his chest. He knew Max would be up for a little longer than he was. He never could come down from the high of a game easily, neither could Duke really. But the knowledge that his family was with him was becoming his favorite feeling. 

“Sleep,” Max said, opening the covers and then waiting for him to get comfortable to hand him the huge a fuck body pillow that was his second favorite thing to spoon in bed. Maybe first. Just for now. 

“Aye aye, _Alternate Captain_ ,” Duke chided, already feeling himself going back to sleep. 

“ _Je t’aime_.” 

That, at least, Max always got right.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this was too sappy, but you know. I kind of miss being pregnant. (Don't ask me why, I hated it with the second one but man. I miss it.) 
> 
> Title from Dixie Chicks "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)"


End file.
